One person is dead, and several police officers injured, after a shooting in a Georgia college town. The Athens-Clarke County Police Department confirmed the news on Monday afternoon, according to Daily Mail.
The police department revealed that an officer had been involved in a shooting in an off-campus apartment complex called River Club. The private complex houses University of Georgia students, according to the outlet.
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The deceased is believed to be the suspect, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI). That person has not been identified at this time, however. More than one officer suffered injuries as a result of the shooting, according to the organization. The injuries are said to be minor.
The agency announced the incident on Twitter at about 1 p.m. local on Monday. At the time, they said it was “an active scene,” and said more information would follow in the hours after.
All officers were treated at the scene, Daily Mail reported.
It’s unclear what caused the incident to unfold. Very little information about the shooting has been released at this time. The AJC reported that officers were called to the River Club complex around 12:30 p.m. ET in response to a man behaving “erratically.” He was said to be wielding a knife at the time, and was “covered in blood.”
Athens-Clarke County police chief Cleveland Spruill said in a news conference on Monday afternoon that they did not locate another victim, and were not sure where the blood on the man had come from. Spruill confirmed that the man was holding a knife when police encountered him. Officers are said to have issued several warnings for him to drop the weapon, but he did not comply.
“However, he disregarded these commands and began to advance at the officers,” Spruill said.
The man apparently charged toward officers and was shot. He was treated on the scene by paramedics, but eventually died from his injuries.
His identity hasn’t been released as of this writing, but he was in his 20s according to Spruill.
According to GBI spokeswoman Nelly Miles, Monday’s shooting is the 39th officer-involved incident the agency has been called upon to investigate in the first seven months of 2019.
The University of Georgia community is still reeling following a similar such incident not long ago, which left a student fighting for his life. According to Fox 24 a 22-year-old college student was killed at a bus stop near campus in a robbery. Authorities arrested the suspect in that incident — 20-year-old Zarren Garner — and charged him with armed robbery and aggravated assault.
Garner allegedly robbed someone of a cell phone before trying to rob the other victim at the bus stop. Police were able to nab Garner with the help of a sketch, which generated tips from the public.
The victim, Tate Prezzano, suffered gunshot wounds to the head and neck area. His father, Dobbin Prezzano, said in a news conference that his son was recovering after the incident. He had been taken to the hospital in critical condition after the shooting, while his shooter remained at large.
